You probably already have a pretty good idea about how solar panels work. You know that they collect sunshine and turn that energy into electricity that you can use to power your home. But even the world’s best solar panels and the world’s least efficient solar panels all have one weakness in common: they can only make electricity when the sun is shining.
Whether it’s a cloudy day, shorter days in the middle of winter, or nighttime, your solar panels can’t make electricity. What you really need is a way to save some of that extra electricity from bright summer days. That’s where storing solar energy comes in. With the right solar batteries, you can save the energy from sunny days for a rainy day—literally.
The Benefits of Storing Solar Energy
There are many benefits of storing solar energy, but these are the three biggest benefits:
Remember those rainy days? That’s one of the main benefits of storing solar energy: you’ll have energy when your solar panels aren’t able to meet your needs. Every solar panel owner experiences gaps in energy production. After all, it gets dark every night for everyone. But things like passing clouds to routine maintenance can also affect your production. In addition, if you live in a rainy, cloudy place, you’ll definitely want to be prepared to take advantage of the few sunny days you have and to store that to fill your energy gaps.
When you’re using power, you can set up your system to pull directly from your stored solar energy. Doing this allows you to avoid high utility costs during peak hours because you’re not using the electrical grid during those times. Then you can refill your solar battery and keep your overall utility costs lower. If you have a demand charge, you can actually get a lower demand charge each month if you save solar energy.
When your solar panels convert sunlight into electricity, the electricity has to be used immediately. Solar panels storing energy long-term isn’t possible. If you’re not home that week or you made more electricity than you need, the rest would go to waste without storing it. So when you’re storing energy from solar panels, you’re balancing out your electrical load. When energy production is high and demand is low, you’re able to save that energy for when demand is high and production is low. It balances out to a nice relationship between production and use.
Unfortunately, sometimes disaster does strike at home. And it can affect whether or not you’re able to produce electricity. From severe weather to power outages to wildfires and more, there are unexpected circumstances that may demand energy, but you aren’t able to produce any. Your stored solar energy is absolutely crucial here. In times of crisis, you’ll need to be able to use power, and you’ll be glad you’ve stored your extra solar energy to provide for the unexpected events in life.
How a Solar Battery Works
There are two main types of systems your solar battery could use. You could have a backup only battery. This solar battery will only be used when your solar panels aren’t able to produce enough power—whether from a cloudy day or major power outage. When you use a backup only battery, you just tap your system into it at that moment, and the lithium ions do their thing to power your home. Then you can go back to your normal energy routine and fill the battery for whenever you need it again.
You can also use your battery as a battery and storage process. Here are the basic steps of how that works:
Get Started Storing Solar Energy
Storing solar energy via solar batteries is a key part of running a self-sustaining solar system. You’ll benefit financially and when you’re able to use your stored energy in an emergency. If you’re looking to get started with storing your own solar energy, you’re probably looking for a good battery that will get the job done.
The Tesla Powerwall solar battery provides all of the benefits of storing solar energy with a top-of-the-line product. Here at 8MSolar, we’re Tesla Powerwall certified, and we can help you get started with storing solar energy with a Tesla Powerwall battery today. We also offer a number of other whole-home battery back-up systems. Contact us for a free solar battery quote.
